Transaero to bring 3,000 Lanta Tur Voyage customers home from abroad

MOSCOW, January 28 (Itar-Tass) —— Russia’s Transeero airline has agreed to help some 3,000 tourists who bought vouchers from troubled Lanta Tur Voyage and bring them home from abroad without additional charges.

Association of Russian Tour Operators (ATOR) Executive Director Maya Lomidze told Itar-Tass on Saturday, January 28, that “after the talks between Transaero and Lanta, the airline agreed to transport all tourists abroad without additional charges if they have its air tickets”.

“Lanta tourists who wish to cut their vacation short can also use Transaero’s services but they will be taken aboard only if there are vacant seats,” Lomidze said.

According to Lanta Tur Voyage, 2,700 of its Russian customers are currently staying abroad.

Lomidze said the company is doing its best to minimise the tourists’ losses and has promised to fulfill all of its obligations and consider each application to be filed.

She stressed that the return tickets held by all Lanta tourists abroad have been paid for and they should not experience any problem going back home.

Lanta Tur Voyage will start accepting claims from January 30. Before that the tourists have to collect a set of documents.

About 100 Lanta tourists could not fly home. “Regrettably, Aeroflot stopped issuing tickets to Lanta Tur Voyage due to its financial problems. Tourists are stranded at Moscow airports. Some 40 at Domodedovo and several dozen at Sheremetyevo. Many of them came from other regions, and they intended to fly to distant countries such as Thailand and Vietnam,” the Russian Union of the Tour Industry’s press secretary Irina Tyurina Tyurina told Russia 24 television.

Lanta Tur Voyage has set up a crisis management centre at its office and announced a hotline number -- /7 /495/ 786-68-60/ -- for tourists to report their problems.

Federal Agency for Tourism (Rostourism) spokesman Oleg Moseyev told Itar-Tass earlier in the day that the agency’s officials and tour operators would meet to try to “work out joint solutions that would minimise losses for all sides”.

Moseyev told Itar-Tass that about 3,000 people can be affected by the suspension of Lanta Tur Voyage’s operations.

Rostourism has set up a crisis hotline -- 7 /495/ 607-71-17 – where Lanta Tur Voyage customers can get consultation.

Lanta Tur Voyage is one of the biggest companies in the Russian market. It unexpectedly stopped all operations on Friday, January 27. The company has been in business for more than 12 years, selling tours to such countries as Thailand, Vietnam and India.